Growing disquiet in Labor over welfare reform

NSW Labor Senator, Doug Cameron, says the party is pushing children into poverty after cutting benefits to single mums.

Transcript

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Prime Minister Julia Gillard is facing down a backbench revolt amid rising protests over cuts to welfare benefits for single parents. The Government has controversially moved thousands of people off parenting payments and onto Newstart. It's looming as one of the big issues come the September federal election, as Conor Duffy reports.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Jacqueline Knox is used to stretching tight budgets for her two daughters, but now she worries they'll all end up out on the street. The rent in her outer-Sydney flat's about to go up, her fortnightly welfare payment's been slashed and she's furious with the Government.

JACQUELINE KNOX: They have taken a coupla hundred dollars from me. I have no idea how I'm gonna pay my rent out of that. I'm just stumped that they would hit the poorest.

CONOR DUFFY: Nine-year-old Jayde is a talented dancer, but she now has to perform at home because the family can't afford eisteddfods and lessons.

Her sister Taryn is missing out on a trip to the orthodontist to straighten crooked teeth.

JACQUELINE KNOX: Been quoted $300 a month for braces. I don't have that money. I don't have it. If they'd kept the parenting payment, I would have scraped by and used the money for that.

CONOR DUFFY: Jacqueline is one of at least 68,000 single parents who in January were forced off the single parenting payment and onto the dole, which Centrelink calls Newstart. This is because the Government's changed the rules so the more generous payment cuts out when the youngest child turns eight instead of 16.

It's supposed to get mums back into work, but Jacqueline, like many others, already has a part-time job. All it means for her is $100 a week slashed from the family budget.

JACQUELINE KNOX: Disgusted. I have worked in my current job for the last 17 years and have been moved onto Newstart. That's why I wanna tell my story, that all single parents aren't dole bludging, spitting out baby after baby, going to the beach, getting their nails done, their hair done, drinking lattes all day.

CONOR DUFFY: In the past single mums and welfare recipients might having been an easy target, but now they plan to make Labor feel as much political pain as possible.

In Adelaide, single mum Kathy Lee is collecting signatures for a national campaign that will see protests around the country on the weekend.

KATHY LEE, SINGLE PARENTS ACTION GROUP: Single parents need their own payment system. And with 68 per cent of single parents already working in one form or another, why are we on an unemployment benefit?

CONOR DUFFY: Many Labor MPs are annoyed that the Government is bleeding for a policy that was actually introduced by the Howard Government in 2006. Labor just made it harsher, extending it to thousands of single parents who'd previously been exempted.

Employment Minister Bill Shorten passed the change through the Senate in October with Coalition support.

KATE ELLIS, ACTING EMPLOYMENT MINISTER: 4,000 people who were receiving parenting payment who were receiving absolutely no fortnightly income on 1st January are now in the workforce, and I think that's a hugely positive step.

CONOR DUFFY: Labor backbenchers are feeling a backlash in their electorates and some are fighting back, slamming their own policy.

DOUG CAMERON, LABOR SENATOR: I didn't join the party to take $100 a week off single parents and I think there's a real angst in the party that we've gone to this stage.

STEPHEN JONES, LABOR MP: I criticised the policy in 2006 when it was introduced back then. I haven't changed my view about my concerns about moving people off one benefit onto a lower benefit, particularly where you're not providing the support and other additional assistance to get them into the workforce.

CONOR DUFFY: A number of MPs will make that argument when caucus next meets and push for changes in next month's budget. Labor dissenters at least want changes that mean working mums won't have their benefits cut so sharply.

DOUG CAMERON: There's been a consistent view within caucus that something should be done about it. I'm not sure that that view has permeated to the executive of the party and the leadership of the party because we still get these arguments that it's an incentive for people to get a job. I can't see how putting children into poverty is an incentive to get a job.

STEPHEN JONES: I have been approached by constituents in my electorate. I'm certain that my colleagues in other areas around the country have been approached as well. Yes, it's an issue.

CONOR DUFFY: The Opposition voted for the policy, but its spokesman declined to be interviewed. Conservative commentators have welcomed the crackdown.

JUDITH SLOAN, ECONOMIST: It's kind of a case of, um, you know, cruel to be kind.

CONOR DUFFY: Judith Sloan says the tough love will be good for single mums.

JUDITH SLOAN: It's a role model which involves a structure to the day where people have to get up, people have to get to work punctually, people have to, I guess, try and do a good job.

CONOR DUFFY: Feminist researcher Eva Cox, herself a single mother, says most people on the parenting payment already work and the changes punish vulnerable families.

EVA COX, FEMINIST COMMENTATOR: In fact, all of the people that are transferred by the time their child turns eight have been on compulsory JobSearch since their child turned six, so the idea that moving them onto Newstart provides them with the incentive to actually look for a job is rubbish. All you can say about this government is they can't read their own statistics, they don't understand their own policy and basically they've stuffed it.

CONOR DUFFY: There's a push to raise the dole for everyone else as well.

DOUG CAMERON: My view is that forcing people into poverty, forcing them to rely on charity because they are on $35 a day is just abysmal.

CONOR DUFFY: Over the last decade, pensions have risen three times more generously than Newstart and now even business and economists want a payrise for the unemployed.

JUDITH SLOAN: I think it's a matter of finding an appropriate balance and which I have supported, you know, a mean, conservative economist like me have supported a modest increase in the Newstart allowance for I think probably close on two years now.

CONOR DUFFY: With the Government still looking to cut costs and bring the budget back to surplus, meeting MP demands on single parents and the dole may not add up.

KATE ELLIS: I'm going to leave it to the Treasurer and the Prime Minister to reveal what may or may not be in the budget, but what I will say is I believe that we have absolutely shown that we are a government that is committed to supporting families.

CONOR DUFFY: But back in Sydney where Jacqueline Knox is struggling to get her daughters to school, a change can't come quickly enough.

JACQUELINE KNOX: I've had to approach the school and say, "Can I pay the books off?" And I can't afford them at the moment. They're wearing $4 school shoes and this is wrong and I work.